Blogroll

I’m gearing up for this thing, though I’m not real excited. I could be doing better things…like sleeping. However, I have my Leinenkugel’s Limited (which doesn’t technically release until next Tuesday, but our local store jumped the gun) and I have my computer humming. Let’s do this thing…

Obama went for the broad brush and failed.

9:12 – We do big things??? That was pretty lame. I’m glad it’s over.

9:08 – Is he suggesting it would be easier if we lived in a Communist country?

9:07 – Yes, it would have been nice for Elena Kagan to allow military recruiters on campus.

9:02 – Let ‘us’ be clear…

9:01 – If you defeat someone, does that mean you are victorious? Oh crap, I said it.

8:57 – Rebuild faith in government? You Democrats did a great job of trouncing any faith over the last several years.

8:56 – We are 45 minutes in and I feel like he has said nothing.

8:55 – Folks are all about that joke.

8:52 – First he rules out any meaningful reform to Social Security, then he knocks on the rich and says millionaires should give up their money for others, but that’s not punishing their success. What a dope.

8:51 – His line about repealing the health bill adding to the deficit will probably end up in a fact check.

8:50 – I put together a commission to do my job and then I didn’t like their ideas.

8:48 – They deserve a government that stays within its means. Good luck.

8:45 – Let’s get this straight. I’m not laughing about your government takeover of healthcare.

8:42 – Get crazy over that health care folks.

8:41 – Are we not now going to rewrite the tax code to benefit the green energy folks?

8:37 – Infrastructure…Redouble means what? It didn’t work the first time. How do you figure on paying for it? You broke the bank the first time. Hey, it’s 40 years ago, we’re gonna do it with high speed rail!

8:34 – Huh? So we transferred the bailout? It’s a form of higher class welfare then?

8:31 – I just missed what he said. I was busy filling my glass with delicious beer. I did hear him mention Race to the Top…otherwise known as a bogus way for the Feds to further control the schools using our taxpayer money.

8:26 pm – Hey, you know how else we break our dependence on foreign oil? We drill here. Great idea, let’s go after oil companies, that’s a new idea. Let’s give that money to other capitalist companies that donate to Obama. Crony Capitalism.

8:25 pm – We’re not just handing out money???? Uh, yeah, that’s pretty much what you have been doing.

8:22 pm – Innovate…here comes the calls for new spending. How do we get out of the recession? A space race? Oh wait, nope just clean energy, big shock.

8:20 pm – Out innovate, out educate, and out build the rest of the world. Hard to do with onerous regulations. Responsibility for our deficit? When?

8:18 pm – The world is changing and there is competition. That’s not news.

8:17 pm – Americans paychecks really aren’t much bigger and who pushed for the tax cuts??? Pretty sure Republicans made the push.

8:16 pm – Wait, I thought corporate profits were a bad thing????

8:16 pm – Now everything has to be bipartisan….elections suddenly don’t matter but jobs do.

8:15 pm – Acknowledges the absurdity of sitting together as a sign that everything is great.

Illinois Congressman Bobby Schilling (IL-17) will attend his first State of the Union address tonight but he won’t invite a Democrat to sit with him. In a push for greater ‘civility,’ some legislators will sit with a member of the opposite party tonight, which breaks a long-standing tradition of sitting on opposite sides of the House floor. Schilling said he won’t be one of them…

“The American people, the people of the 17th District, were very clear that they didn’t like the direction the country was headed. I will sit towards the middle and if a member of the other party sits next to me, I’m fine with that. If the President says something good, I might stand up and clap. If it’s something I disagree with, I’m going to remain seated.” Read the rest of this entry »

Ann Wagner lost her bid to become RNC Chair last week to Reince Preibus. It didn’t take long for rumors to fly that she might run for US Senate in 2012 against Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Now, Roll Call is reporting that she has confirmed she may indeed run.

“Exactly a week ago today we got back from the RNC race, and I’ve kind of reflected and recharged, and I am going to take a look at the U.S. Senate race,” Wagner said in a phone interview…

…Wagner said that elected officials and activists have encouraged her to get into the race and that she will begin making phone calls about it next week.

Other potential candidates include former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman and 2006 challenger Jim Talent. The only caveat for an Ann Wagner run?

Wagner said she wouldn’t run against Talent but otherwise would not be discouraged from joining a contested primary race.

Having spoken with Wagner at length prior to the RNC race, she is highly qualified for the job and despite Claire Bear’s continued cries of “moderate,” a conservative is needed for the job. Wagner would certainly fit the bill.

My pre-RNC interview with Wagner can be found here. We will certainly talk to her again as the election heats up.

If only Gov. Pat Quinn would have been smart enough to realize what kind of reaction he would get from border state governors when he jacked Illinois’ taxes up in the middle of a recession. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels both made strongly worded statements and I have no doubt that if Missouri Governor Jay Nixon was a Republican and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad wasn’t in the middle of inauguration proceedings, they too would have made fun of Illinois.

Just about everyday since the tax hike was passed, Illinois has received some sort of national news story, whether on TV, radio or internet. Even the liberal media is essentially talking about how crazy Illinois is and usually they cheer lead this type of thing. The local media did manage to find one lady who has decided to put away all rational thinking. Read the rest of this entry »

Just back from vacation and I have yet to comment here about the shootings in Arizona.

Here’s what it boils down to…

Senseless violence by a mentally deranged man that injured several including a sitting Congresswoman and took the lives of 5 people including a federal judge and a 9 year old girl. It’s sad and it’s unfortunate. I hope and pray that Rep. Giffords fully recovers. I am impressed by the response from the family of the 9 year old girl.

That said, let’s talk about folks involved in this situation that disgust me almost as much as the killer.

1. Pima County Sheriff Dupnik: One of the worst responses from a law enforcement official I have ever seen. He didn’t wait for evidence, he didn’t conduct an investigation, and apparently didn’t keep this guy off the streets when he could have, yet he chose to spout off immediately about something he wasn’t qualified to talk about. He is hiding something and will soon be without a job.

2. Liberal media: That includes just about everyone except FOX. I realize that might sound cliche but please show me another “news” organization who hasn’t spent the last four days injecting a Tea Party/Conservative link into their stories or discussions. That would be relevant except for the part where there has been no evidence to suggest that. In fact, the evidence now suggests otherwise, yet they continue trying to make the connection that isn’t there.

Two final thoughts…

The idea that talk radio or cable news would make a person shoot someone is absurd. Why would a conservative listen to a conservative, get angry and shoot someone? Do you know when conservatives get angry? When they listen to liberals. I don’t get angry when I listen to Rush, I get angry when I listen to Ed Schultz. However, because I am a stable person and because no one airs Ed Schultz, I don’t commit murder. The only way that the “conservative talk radio leads to murder” argument would hold is if a liberal listened to it and then killed a conservative. You could make the reverse argument about liberal talk radio but nobody listens to it so that wouldn’t work.

Finally, it didn’t take long to hear the calls for more laws as a result of the Arizona tragedy but think about this. If advancing your agenda (gun control, Fairness Doctrine) requires a senseless act of violence, then there is something wrong with your agenda.

Mostly checking out for the first week of the year and getting off the grid (Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc.). We will see how that goes. Congrats to all the new leaders in Washington who will be sworn in on Wednesday. We are counting on you and will hold you accountable. After Wednesday, failing to do the right thing will land your keister in hot water.

I’m looking forward to a good yet difficult 2011. Things are not going to change overnight. In fact, they are probably going to become more difficult in the short term if tough choices are made. Do Republicans already in office have the cojones to make those choices? Does the new crop of representatives have the cojones to break from the leadership if they don’t? Democrats have proven they don’t know what’s best and many of them were shown the door. Will they get the message going forward? So far, the answer is no.

One battle has been fought but the war has yet to be won! Onward in 2011!

Principled conservatism will make the difference in the next election cycle. A Republican National Committee that blows in the wind, supports RINO’s, and tries to interfere with the primary process will hand the country another four years of Barack Obama. It will also limit the congressional gains that can be made in 2012. In order for principled conservatism to reign supreme once again in the Republican Party, a qualified, principled chairman will need to be chosen. Michael Steele is not that person. Neither is frontrunner Reince Preibus. I do not want to spend more time in the next two years defending the RNC than I do working to get good conservatives elected. If elected to the RNC Chair post, I think Ann Wagner will see to it that the Republican Party regains their conservative focus, raises the necessary money, spends it wisely and wins elections. Read the rest of this entry »

The Democrat-controlled FCC will rule on “net neutrality” tomorrow. They are expected to approve it. This comes after the plan failed to get through Congress and a court ruled that the FCC didn’t have jurisdiction to rule in the matter. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell has an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal today. Democrats now say they have the FCC votes to adopt the rules. This is nothing more than more regulation forced through under the guise of “preventing discrimination.” We talked with Seton Motley of StopNetRegulation.org today. As he says, “net neutrality is a solution searching for a problem.”

Today, the Dream Act failed to get the 60 necessary votes to break a GOP filibuster and eventually become law. This is a victory in the illegal immigration war. The Dream Act was a bill predicated on the idea that we should give amnesty to hundreds of thousands of (illegal) immigrant children who went to college or joined the military. This bill was nothing more than a step towards enhancing the ranks of the Democrat party. Some have balked at that idea, but take a look at today’s AP article on the bill’s failure:

Democrats’ determination to vote on the bill before year’s end reflected the party’s efforts to satisfy Hispanic groups whose backing has been critical in recent elections and will be again in 2012. They said they’ll try again in the next Congress, despite the increased GOP presence.

“The echo of this vote will be loud and long,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., a key House sponsor of the bill. “We are at the tipping point that will define the political alignment of the Republican and Democratic parties with Latino voters for a generation.”

In other words, it’s not about the hopes and dreams of the children, it’s about the votes of the children and others of similar nationality. Read the rest of this entry »

Kudos to Media Matters for exposing Fox News as a credible news organization. In their second round of “FoxLeaks,” the George Soros-funded organization “uncovers” an email from Fox News Washington editor Bill Sammon asking reporters to not report on global warming or cooling without also pointing out that not every scientist was in agreement on the theory. Read the rest of this entry »